Djilas in a Letter to Manfred Weber: Mr. Weber, Do You Have Any Idea What Country You Were Visiting?

Dragan Djilas/BRANISLAV BOZIC

Dragan Djilas, the president of the Party of Freedom and Justice and one of the leaders of the Alliance for Serbia, sent an open letter on Dec. 5 to Chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament (EP) Manfred Weber, who had just finished his two-day visit to Serbia with the EP delegation, asking him if had any idea what country he was visiting.

“It was with great disbelief that a vast number of Serbia citizens listened to your statements on how much Aleksandar Vucic and you share in terms of values and ideas of fighting for the independence of institutions, the rule of law, and free media. Especially given that you are one of those notable leaders of EPP, who voted, out of principle and conviction, to suspend Victor Orban’s Fidesz from the EPP,” Djilas wrote.

“For this reason,” added Djilas, “many of us were shocked to hear your statement, [made just] three days after Aleksandar Vucic had said that the only independent newspaper and one of the three free weekly magazines are plotting his assassination. They conspire to kill him all because of one photo and a caricature they’ve published.”

“Do you really share the values such as the fight for the freedom of media with a man who has made such a statement? With a man who has organized the most gruesome campaign against journalists and caricaturists, against the opposition, a campaign that involves all ruling party’s officials, the prime minister, and the members of the Cabinet…. A campaign that was promoted and supported by all commercial TV stations with national reach and all the daily so-called newspapers,” the leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice asked.

He also asked Weber if he was aware of the fact that “this campaign also put the lives of both daily Danas and weekly NIN’s journalists in danger, as well as all other professional journalists still working in Serbia. Is this the vision of the fight for the freedom of media you, together with Vucic, advocate?”

“You spoke also of values, such as human rights, independency of institutions and the rule of law, while the man who came forward about the incredible crime in the Krusik arms factory, which implicates the very top of the Serbian Progressive Party, has been in jail and under house arrest for the last two months,” stressed Djilas.

Djilas also asked Weber to explain “what kind of economic growth and good program that would stop the exodus in Serbia are we talking about when last year, according to official records, over 50,000 people left Serbia and when in reality this number is probably twice as high?”

“Such statements mock all those who had to leave, every father and mother who had to say goodbye to their child, every grandmother and grandfather who will be in touch with their grandchildren only through Skype and Viber,” Djilas wrote.

“I have to ask you if you, Mr. Weber, have any idea what country you have just visited? Do you know that it is the country for which the European Commission adopted a very negative report for the past year, a country that the Human Rights Watch deemed un-free,” Djilas further asked.

Djilas also said that he, much like many of Serbia’s citizens, is eager to hear Mr. Weber’s responses to these publicly asked questions.

“For, if you claim that that what Vucic is doing is in accord with EU values, then I, fighting for Serbia in the EU,  have for the past 30 years lived in an illusion,” Djilas concluded in his open letter to Weber.